Kievan Rus', The Principalities of Chernigov, Polotsk, Galicia–Volhynia, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Tsardom of Russia, The United Soviet Socialist Republics, The Confederation of Independent States, the Russian Confederacy, names may change but one this is certain Russia endures, Russian endures.

The Russian Confederacy originally began as an economic block formed to built and reform after the second great depression of 2033, a semi closed market promising that the East would never again be dragged down by the greed of the Western money markets.

Initially consisting of Russia and her surrounding states, by 2048 the economic agreement eventually extended across the pacific to the markets of South America, amongst the countries that former had trade ties with Russian before the Depression.

As the economic ties grew into military and cultural ties, the member states demanded more say in the governing of the block, so the Russian Confederacy was formed in 2065 with the Zook Constitution with representatives of all the member states being allow a place in the Central Committee of the Politburo and a chance to run to Chairman.

This did result in a certain level of factionalism finding its way into the Central Committee with the Army, Navy, Civilian sectors and Technocrats all pushing their own agendas, but it is said in the maelstrom of the Politburo, only the strongest agendae survive.

Russia might be divided in means to achieve her aims, but Russia is always united in get goals, to be at the forefront of the world stage, Russia is still the third Rome.

What the Elections of 2100 will bring only time will tell, but at present it seems that Akim Davydov will secure the Chairmanship and seems to have the numbers to put an end for the factionalism for the time being and lead the Russian Confederation into the Trans Newtonian Age

There has been a lot of activity at the Vostochny launch pad lately as more and more of the Russian Confederation spacecraft construction infrastructure has been moved into orbit. Informed sources have said this might be the last mission for the venerable Soyuz series of conventional rockets before a new generation of the "transnewtonian" spacecrafts are launched.

1.1 The NAU is a parliamentary republic. Congress holds the final say in all matters of the state.

1.2 Congress may, as it wishes, delegate part of its authority.

1.3 All decisions of Congress are taken by simple majority vote, with the exception of amendment to the Constitution or indictment of a President, which require a supermajority of two thirds of the entire Congress.

1.4 All votes shall last at minimum until one of the following three conditions has been met:

the proposal has been approved by a majority of all members of Congress,

the proposal has been rejected by a majority of all members of Congress, or

twenty-four hours have passed.

1.5 A member putting a matter to the vote must label the vote with a short, descriptive, unique name. Voting is by adding your name to a codeblock, which MUST NOT be enclosed within a quote, and should include the name of the vote, the option(s) that have been voted for, the names of all previous voters associated with what they voted for, and your name.

Article 2: The Presidency

2.1 The President is the representative of the nation. However, he does not exercise executive authority unless that authority is specifically granted by Congress.

2.2 The President is elected by Congress for a ten year term. There is no term limit. The President may be dismissed from that post at any time by a supermajority vote of Congress.

2.3 When a Congressional vote is a tie, the President's vote is decisive.

2.4 The President must nominate a vice-President. If the President dies or is incapacitated (is absent from the game), the vice-President will replace him and complete the term. When a tie needs to be resolved and the President didn't cast a vote, the vice-president's vote breaks the tie.

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Explanatory note:It is useful for votes to be visually set apart from debate, but in this forum software quotes cannot be quoted. Therefore we will use codeblocks instead. The markup for this is [ code]Vote name - name of supporter, name of supporter[/ code].

In order to facilitate negotiations with foreign power, Congress can appoint three ambassadors (to the FSA, to the RUS and to Non-Aligned Countries). The Ambassador try to foster good relation with the nation he is appointed in, and negotiate treaties within the limit of what Congress decided. If necessary, a single Congressman may be appointed to several Ambassadorship.

The FSA consists of it member nations, who have their own local government systems. All matters of defense, foreign relations, capital regulations, trade, international arbitration, and research are handled by the FSA.

The FSA governing body consists of three organizations.

Ruling council:

Consisting of the Primer Minister, Head of the Army, Head of the Navy, Secretary of State, and all other cabinet ministers appointed by the Prime Minister. They carry out the day to day running of the government. By tradition, the Deputy Attache to the UN (Zambia) speaks for the FSA at the UN.

Lower house (Volksraad)Consisting of one seat for every 4 million citizens, with a minimum of 200 seats.

Elections are held every four (4) years, unless a prime minister calls a snap election. A new census is held at each 2nd election or when a world achieves the ability to vote for the volksraad. Each world has it own vote, and seats are allocated proportionally. A Prime Minister is named by the majority of the Volksraad. A party must gain 2% of the vote to be seated. All seats that remain due to parties not meeting the threshold and the handful of seats that cannot be equably divided go to the party with the highest vote total.

Upper House (Senate)Senators are named for life. There are 20 non-partisan senators, and then at the end of each year new senators are nominated. For every percent of voting, a party gains one point of "goodwill" at the end of the year. When a party gains 20 points, they get to use it to name a senator. (I check twice a year for senators to pass on, thus limiting the senate to 99 members except for short term overruns.)

Who does what?Ruling council makes day to day choicesLaws must pass the lower and upper houses. Treaties are signed by the Prime minister, and ratified by the senate.

ColoniesUpon reaching 1 million persons, a colony achieves self rule, and can have local elections (simple 200 seat assembly) upon reaching 4 million persons, a colony obtains a seat in the Volksraad. These seats are allocated by the vote inside the colony.

This is sure to be overshadowed by more recent events and probably won't make any headlines now, but there has been some rumours going around in the russian scientific community. It is supposed to have started when head of research Vera Bulgakov cancelled a number of scientific grants previously given to other scientists and reassigned labs according the her own plans, mainly to herself that is. This naturally caused some discontent in the scientific community and has made Bulgakov the target of a number of vicious rumours (feel free to make up specifics).

Chairman Davydov has been surprisingly quiet since assuming office as leader of the Russian Confederation. In fact not a single speech or public appearance.

More junior members of the politburo however appears to have assumed responsibility for a number of tasks under the current leadership. One of them is Aleksis Klimov who at the time of the "Peacekeeper crisis" was on site as a russian delegate in Geneva. While still not holding any official title his 15 minutes of fame there condemning the americans and talking about peace seems to have earned him more time in the spotlight.

Klimov is said to currently be planning a trip to visit several FSA countries like Iran and South Africa. While not being an official state visit he will still be meeting with some political leaders as well as representatives from industry.

The Mikoyan aircraft manufacturers best known for their series of MiG military aircraft over the past 150 years has now transitioned into the TN era. They are said to have contributed heavily to the design of the new Russian space survey vessel, the Zond.

The NAU launched its first Union Patrol Boat, which is currently around the orbit of Neptune to rescue the stranded Ark. The Union is 3200 tons and fly at 3000 km/s, a full 500 km/s faster than any other ship in the system.

It is well known the current russian leadership under Davydov has kept a low profile and little information on what is going on internally has been leaked to the outside world. But there is now word that things have changed. Various departments have forced through demands of more autonomy which Davydov had no choice but to accept, effectively limiting his own power to a more formal role.

The main rumour is that this was made possible by an unholy alliance by the "dove" faction headed by Aleksis Klimov and more hawkish elements from the navy. Yet other rumours say there was an old family with oligarch roots involved behind the scenes, but there is nothing else to support this theory.

Effectively this will lead to some departments like research under Vera Bulgakov more say in the future of the RC, somewhat surprisingly giving the young lady who was first dismissed as a temporary figurehead some real political power. It will also allow the navy more discretion in how they conduct "their" business as well as resources for some new toys finally conceded by the Klimov faction.

But to know all the details of what is happening behind the scenes.. that would probably require some personal connections among the main factions in russian politics.